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Monday, August 25, 2014

Another Critter Rescue ..

Hello my dear friends,

I have a story to share with you today. Thankfully it has a happy ending but unfortunately, it also has a short nasty part to it. When you read it, you will understand what I mean.

~
 
I went for a walk with my two daughters and son-in-law on Saturday morning and on our way home, I noticed something laying on the sidewalk close to the grass. At first it looked like a wet brown leaf but taking a closer look, it turned out to be a little brown bat. The poor little thing was lethargic and barely could lift it's head up.

Not being able to touch it as it was, we hurried home to get a box, some water, garden gloves, and to also give our local wildlife rescue center a quick call. We were told that we could bring him to them. They would try and find a wildlife rehabilitator for him but if they couldn't find anyone who could take him, they would try and set him free. If he was to badly injured, they would have to euthanize him though and we totally understood that.

Off we went, this time with the car to where we found him. The little critter was still laying on the sidewalk and still no activity at all. I put a little water in the bottle cap, moved it towards his little face but he was scared and sort of hissed at me and showed me this sharp teeth to make me stay away.



 
Isn't this a cutie?!

 I put a little water onto the ground right in front of him and suddenly he began to drink ... and drink and drink. Five more times I gave him a little more water and he just didn't seem to want to stop drinking it and I was so glad about it. He also became a little more active too because when I tried to pick him up and place him in the box, he tried to crawl away. But he did end up in the box and on his way with us to the Wildlife Rescue Center.
 
On our arrival, we walked into the building and told they receptionist why we had come. We were told that they would have to have an 'animal technician' look at the bat first. A young woman was called and after hearing it was about a bat her reply was: "Ew, ew, ew!" (in disgust) "Because of bats, we have rabies!" (I know she had a point but other animals like rats, foxes, squirrels and raccoons can carry the virus too.) She continued to tell us that she needed to know where we found the animal, my contact information and that we would have to sign the animal over to her. She would then call the health office and after that euthanize the little critter! Now that isn't what I was told on the phone! Where had the part of trying to release the animal if it turned out to be OK, gone? Suddenly her whole attitude towards us changed. My younger daughter was now angry and had left the room. And I decided to follow her. I pick up my box with the little brown biter and left as well. I was very angry to have been given deceiving information about what was going to happen to the bat.

On our way home we had to drive past one the city's main rivers and we remembered a parking lot where we have fed geese a few winters ago, and that is where we headed to. We stopped next to a larger old maple tree and I carefully placed the box next to it. As I slowly opened the lid, the little brown bat looked up at me and then started to climb out of the box and up the tree trunk. As he got just over a foot high, he turned himself up side down. Still a little shaky from the whole experience, he caught himself a bug that was next to him. After that he pulled his wings over his head and fell asleep. We happily left him there and headed back home. 
 

  
Now it was up to Nature if this little creature would survive or not. I know, I did my best with my daughter Caylagh's help to give a little helping hand to save it.

Is that the end of this story? ... No, not quite yet. Come later today, I am going to call the wildlife rescue center and speak to who ever is in charge to make a complaint about what happened.
 
I hope you don't mind that I shared this story with all you lovely bloggers but it was important to me. Many people out there go out of their way to help animals and others that are meant to do so, don't even stop and think and do then the wrong thing.
 
I hope you are well my dear friends and life is treating you kind.

Have a peaceful and creative day.
 

14 comments:

  1. I was surprised to read this and find that the rescue centre didn't see a future for the bat and were not going to rehabilitate him, am so glad you did though. He looks so pretty and has every right to a fighting chance in his natural habitat. We have a lot of bat boxes in the woods here and last Summer were lucky enough to see about 30 bats hanging from a tree and circling it - I hope your little bat finds others and lives happily ever after. Betty

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  2. I had no idea they have such beautiful fur. He is a cutie. You did the best thing. I'm sure you saved his life.

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  3. Oh what a story happened to you ... I hope the bat will be ok.
    I don't understand what the lady of the wildlife rescue is thinking about her job.
    She should rescue wild lifes I think!!!

    Hugs Ines♥

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  4. Thank you for your efforts. I am in complete agreement.

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  5. What a lovely thing to do! There's a special place in heaven for people that help animals I know.

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  6. God Bless You for helping out this little guy. Though I don't like them in the house, which has happened before, they are very beneficial in nature. I would never dream that a wild life refuge would even think of euthanizing a bat! I would complain to them also, and I'm so glad you took the bat back!

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  7. And if we didn't have bats, we'd have way too many insects! I do prefer my bats at a safe distance. :-)

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  8. Thank you for sharing this. I love bats, they are so good for the environment. They get rid of Mosquitos and other undesirable insects. Bravo for your kindness.

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  9. That's amazing that a person who cares for animals could be so misinformed about who are carriers of rabies. We all have a place in this ecosystem (except for Kudzu), and we can't destroy pieces of it and expect the rest to healthily survive.

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  10. This little Bat was in a bad situation until you came along filled from head to toe with human kindness and saved the day. I'm disgusted at the animal rescue centres readiness to kill this wee soul (euthanize is just a fancy way to avoid saying 'Kill') and Rescue doesn't quite fit the description in this situation. I live in the UK and it is against the law here to harm, injure or kill Bats as they are a protected species.
    Thank goodness for people like you and I hope you gave the manager of the Rescue Centre hell. You should also tell your story to your local paper as who knows -someone else just may be able to help another poor creature after reading what you did. Well done. Mary

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  11. Good for you!!!! I would have done the same thing! You saved him:)
    ~Debra xxx
    Capers of the vintage vixens

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  12. Oh my goodness, what a sweet story. I am so happy that it had a happy ending. I think the lady you talked to at the Rescue Center is not the right person for the job there. What a shame. So happy you walked out with the bat and gave it a chance to recover.

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  13. Hooray for you Karen - I do hope your bat found his way back to his roost. I think you gave him a very good chance to do that. I found a bat on my kitchen floor last year (I do get them flying in the house occasionally) and it was obviously injured with a torn wing. I contacted the Bat Conservation Trust here in the UK and they found me a local group and in a couple of hours a very nice young man came to collect my poor bat. They looked after him and he did survive a couple of weeks with their care but sadly he died suddenly for no apparent reason - but at least he had been given every chance. I do hope there are such caring groups over there - I'm sure there are.

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  14. Good for you. I'm surprised that this young woman had no idea of the worth of bats. I too prefer them NOT in my house (that happened when I was a child), but a Rescue center should do just that..
    rescue the poor thing. I hope it has survived the ordeal.

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